A Guide to FanFiction: Maximum Ride Edition
by FanFiction Welcome Wagon
Summary: This is a story written to help introduce those new to the site or archive to commonly used terms when writing fanfictions, pairings, and some writing tips.


**Universal Disclaimer: Do not own anything about Maximum Ride, not the characters, not the plot.**

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Fang opened up his laptop. It had been a while since he last checked his blog, he figured the comments were overflowing his inbox by now.

They were.

He sighed. Over five hundred, and it's been only, what, maybe one hour? Two? This was really starting to get a bit ridiculous.

Fang clicked comment after comment, skimming through each one, and replying to about half of them. The other half were just the usual fan girl things ("I love you, Fang!" and "You should totally dump Max for me" were some of the most common).

Though one comment caught his attention.

"OMG, Fang," he read, "I just joined a site called fanfiction. net, and you should really see it! There are so many stories about you, and some of them are sooo funny! But I wonder if their actually true. Do you go on there? If so, you should totally check out my profile! :)"

Fang looked at the message. FanFiction? That didn't sound very good, if he was featured on it.

His curiosity got the best of him. He pulled up his favorite search engine and typed in "fanfiction. net" and clicked on the first link that came up.

"FanFiction. net - Unleash Your Imagination!" read the top of the screen. Oh, God. . .

It didn't take him very long to figure out the navigation. He clicked on the link to books, figuring most of this stuff would be written under the Maximum Ride series the Flock's good friend James Patterson wrote. He was right.

Eight thousand stories and counting. Eight thousand stories written by complete fans much like the ones who frequented his blog . . . Fang gulped as he clicked the link.

It appeared the different entries were made up stories about he and the other characters in the Maximum Ride series, written by the fans of the series. He read the short summaries, skipped some of the stranger ones, and was puzzled by most. What in the would did AH and AU mean? And what about the code words Fax and Figgy? He just didn't get it.

He clicked a link to the next page, and right at the top was a story titled "A Guide to FanFiction: Maximum Ride Edition." He clicked it, hoping it had the answers to most of his questions.

He skimmed through the little intro, which just welcomed new comers like him to the site, and looked at the section titled "Abbreviations." It read as follows:

_ Throughout the site, you may notice words or letters in a summary that may seem a bit out of place. They're actually not, they are just an abbreviated form of a longer phrase or character pairing. Here are some of the most commonly used ones in the Maximum Ride archive:_

_**Terms:**_

_ MR - Maximum Ride - Usually used referring to the series_

_ AE - Angel Experiment_

_ SOF - School's Out--Forever_

_ StWaOES - Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports_

_ TFW - The Final Waring. Not very common._

_ MAX - Max, the fifth book of the series_

_ AH - All Human - Means the members of the Flock don't have bird DNA, were never at the School, and they are all 100% human. So no wings. :(_

_ AU - Alternative Universe - Happens in a world different than the one in the books. Ex: Ari never died, erasers were never terminated, Max never found out who her mom was, etc._

_ OC - Original Character - Contains a character created by the fanfiction author and is not included in the original books_

_ OOC - Out of Character - Characters don't act as they would in the original books. Usually in comedic fanfictions._

_ FF - Fan Fiction - Which is, of course, a story about characters from the media written just for fun and commonly abbreviated as "fan fic."_

_ R & R - Read and Review_

_ POV - Point of View_

_ Slash - a pairing, usually homosexual_

_ Character/Character or CharacterXCharacter - defines a pairing between the two characters._

_**Pairings:**_

_ Fax - Fang & Max. Also Mang._

_ Miggy - Max & Iggy_

_ Eggy - Ella & Iggy_

_ Niggy - Nudge & Iggy_

_ Figgy - Fang & Iggy_

Fang stop reading. Him and _Iggy_? Really? He felt like he was about to throw up at the thought of it. What sick mind came up with this, he wondered, and what person would want to read a story like that, let alone write it?

Never mind. He didn't really want to think about it.

Though he did think it was a bit comical how his name combined with Iggy's turned out to sound like a type of fruit.

He shut his laptop and took a much needed break. After learning about the extreme madness that is fandom, he could stand another second looking at the computer screen.

He stood up, and exited his room. He should probably tell the Flock about this. At least Iggy will get a good laugh.

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A/N (Author's Note) : **

_**This story was written by Random Dramatic Comedy.**_

** Frequently asked questions will be covered in the next chapter. If you have a question, please either leave it in a review, PM, or email.**

** If there is anything you would like to add, such as a term or pairing that wasn't mentioned, again, please say so in a review, PM, or email. The first person to suggest the term or pairing will get credited.**

** Would you like to join in FanFiction Welcome Wagon's mission to help introduce new comers to FanFiction or the different archives of the site? Contact us! We are always looking to expand our helpful stories to the many different archives of FanFiction.**

** For more information on us and our mission, either see our profile or contact us if you have anymore questions.**

** -Your good friends at FanFiction Welcome Wagon**


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